Maria Sharapova defeatedSimona Halep in the final, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the2014 French Open. It was her secondFrench Open title and her fifth and lastmajor title overall. In a final that lasted over three hours, it was the first time since2001 that the final went to three sets.[1] Halep was the first Romanian to reach the final sinceVirginia Ruzici in1980.
The top three seeds (Williams,Li Na andAgnieszka Radwańska) were in contention for theworld No. 1 singles ranking. However, they all failed to reach the fourth round and so Williams retained the top spot. As a result, this marked the first time in theOpen Era the top three seeds all failed to reach the round of 16 at a major.
Seventh-seeded Sharapova beat 18th-seededEugenie Bouchard 4–6, 7–5, 6–2 in the first semi-final, while fourth-seededSimona Halep beat 28th-seededAndrea Petkovic, 6–2, 7–6(7–4) in the second. In the first set, Halep won the first two games before Sharapova won five consecutive games.[1][3] Halep fought back and narrowed the margin to 5–4, before Sharapova broke Halep to win the set 6–4. The second set went to a tiebreaker where Sharapova jumped out to a 5–3 lead. However, Halep won the next four points to take the set 7–6(7–5). While leading 2–1 in the third set, Halep had break point but Sharapova recovered and won the game. She then broke Halep to take a 4–2 lead. Halep held, then broke back to level the set at 4–4, but got broken again in the next game. Serving for the match, Sharapova held at love, taking the set 6–4.[3] It was the first time since 2001 that the final went to 3 sets.[1]